Hi,Today when I was going to start CalMan I did get a error messages telling me that my licens is not installed on the same system, Se attached image.I have not change anything in my system or have I change any software more then updating Windows (let's hope that's not the issue) and I have change the computer name as I need to do so to enter the network here. And update the FW for my chipset and BIOS as Lenovo have released updates for it, if that's the case and that's the trigger SpectraCal need to take a look on the license attachment thing to the computers as for me I have a brand new system and BIOS and Chipset updates 'll happen again is my guess as the system might have bugs.It did work fine for some days ago when I did use it to calibrate my display.

So now, I can't even use CalMan as it don't let me to de-activate the license as it did uninstall the license by it self, this should not happen - if this issue happens because of something the license should de-activate it self so I can activate it again.Now I need to wait for the customer service to replay my e-mail and because of that I can't calibrate the TV now when I have time to do it.

I'm just pissed off right now, sorry for it - but this issue should not even bee happening as I have not change anything in my system (hardware) or re-installed Windows or done anything more then what every user are doing with there computer.

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Last edited by TestGoddess on Thu Apr 06, 2017 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:I'm hijacking this thread

Up until 5.7.2, there has been no verification check on our license keys. We used the honor system, that our users would not abuse our trust and use their keys strictly as intended. Sadly, over the years this has been greatly abused. In addition we have had many requests to improve our licensing system and add some additional functionality that was not available with the old method.

So, this is what has lead up for us to institute the new system. It works like many others out there. They key is tied to a hardware ID and that gets registered on a central server. The server tracks how many activations are available and how many have been assigned (this halts key sharing). Its a system used in a lot of different software out there.

The issue mentioned here in the thread is that it is more possible for that Hardware ID to change beneath CalMAN than we realized.

The first we identified has to do with MAC address. A MAC address is an ID tied directly to the physical network card. The active MAC address will change if you use different network adapters (such as switching between wired and wireless networks). It can also change if you make use of a feature in Windows 10 that will randomize your wireless card's MAC address.

If anyone is hitting this scenario, please contact me directly. I do have a build that will resolve this specific issue, but it will require us to jump through a few hoops and is not ready to be thrown out to the general public. Basically it will break anyone who has been running just fine, which is the vast majority of our users.

Any change which requires you to reactivate Windows will also cause the same for CalMAN. So major hardware changes, etc will cause CalMAN to think it is no longer the machine it was registered on.

Calby, could you check your activation status in Windows for me? I'd like to see if that changed for you at all.

We are trying to work out a solution to the issues our users are seeing. However we have to be careful here in that we don't want to disrupt our customers who are not having an issue. This is sadly going to take us a little time to find the best path with the least disruption. Trust me, if we put out a new build that causes everyone's CalMAN install to deactivate, I'm taking a month's vacation somewhere with no electricity, cell service, or phone lines.

I do request, if anyone out there runs across this issue, please contact me directly. The behavior you will see is that CalMAN is activated and running as normal. Then one time you will start CalMAN and you will see the error message Calby shows above. After that CalMAN will be in evaluation mode and will not be able to activate again until we intervene.

You can contact me either through this thread, a private PM here on the forums, or email me directly at qa@spectracal.com. I do request that you not share private information on public areas of this forum (such as this thread).

When reporting, please try to provide as much information as possible on any system changes you can think of. So far I have been unable to reproduce the behavior with any Windows updates, be they normal or Insider Preview. In Calby's situation, it is possible his might have been triggered by a BIOS update, which I am trying to look into now.

Melissa, you should probably use this post to open it's own thread. There's a huge Windows upgrade coming in a few days (the one nuhi mentioned) that from your post will probably deactivate most Windows users, in case you weren't aware.

I've gone through BIOS updates with no problems thankfully, as I do them fairly often in my overclocking activities.

Sorry for the late answer but here it is,My license for Windows is Windows 10 Pro x64 and have not change when CalMan did de-activate it self.

My guess is that the FW update for my Intel chipset did trigger the de-activation as my LAN-card is integrated in the chipset.I have updated the drivers for both my LAN and Wifi card without any issues, but I'm always using the Wifi card so I have not tried to use the LAN I have only updated the drivers for it.Do you want me to change my connection from Wifi to LAN to see if it's affecting the CalMan activation?

I am having this same issue and since I am part of the Windows Insider program this will continue to happen as Microsoft pushes new Windows builds to my machine almost weekly. Can I get a copy of this test build?

I was set up to use the VideoForge over wifi, so there was no internet connection. Started CalMAN and said something about no authentication and went into demo mode. Had to reconnect to the internet and input my license details before then connecting to the VideoForge. Very frustrating.

Mark, the next update too CalMAN 2017 removes the MAC address check as part of the licensing interface. The VideoForge direct connect over WiFi probably triggered this issue. We hope to have a beta of CalMAN 2017 post NAB.

I was set up to use the VideoForge over wifi, so there was no internet connection. Started CalMAN and said something about no authentication and went into demo mode. Had to reconnect to the internet and input my license details before then connecting to the VideoForge. Very frustrating.

Send me an email at qa@spectracal.com. I can get you reset and a beta build which removed the MAC address feature. Switching between wired and wireless will 100% trigger the behavior.

[quote="TestGoddess"]Send me an email at qa@spectracal.com. I can get you reset and a beta build which removed the MAC address feature. Switching between wired and wireless will 100% trigger the behavior.[/quote]

Ok, so that suggests a fix will be released? If so, I can wait. Am reactivated and will avoid using the VideoForge until the update is ready.

I don't know when or how a fix will be released at the moment. There are other factors involved that are going to make this one a major issue to update and we'll likely drag our feet to make sure we avoid as many complications as possible.

I'm trying to figure out the logic on activations/deactivations on your web portal.

Is the idea that if you have a license active on one computer (say your internet computer) but want to use another computer (your main calibration computer) that you can go into the license page of your internet computer, deactivate the license there, then open your calibration computer license page and activate it there?

Yes, 1 activation and 3 deactivations basically means that you can deactivate and move your CalMAN activation 3 times. A used activation comes back once it has been deactivated. The idea is more geared towards getting a new calibration laptop or similar than switching between muiltiple calibration machines.

As of the moment, you can only deactivate from within CalMAN itself. This might change in the future. If, for some reason, you were not able to deactivate from within CalMAN (machine does, etc), contact customer service and they will be able to deactivate it for you manually.

I had similar issues when I went to update my Home Enthusiast software yesterday. (I'm using an HP Spectre with Windows 10 64 Prom which is up to date.)

The first red flag was that the current software's expiration date showed March 2017, but I RENEWED my license on May 4, 2017.

After installation, it said I didn't have a license and reverted to the trial version. When I tracked down my license and password information and entered it, it said that license was a duplicate because it was already registered.

Having been the "unofficial IT guy" at my office for over a decade, I did what any decent unofficial IT guy would do under similar circumstances: I closed down Calman, did a cold boot, and relaunched Calman. It worked, and has continued working since then.

Not working for me, already contacted you by email, you reset my "deactivations", but I'm in this situation where the Licensing software wont work at all, so Im already left with 1 activation and 1 deactivation left for this very reason.

Here's my recent positive experience. After going through the new beta conversion I had to restore my OS image, which had the 2016 version. I updated the software with the 2017 beta, got the trial situation, entered the license & password, clicked Activate Online, and it got properly activated. Wonder why some are having this problem. Could be a Windows version thing?

Some see it solved by reinstalling windows, something I'm not willing to do, I shouldn't have to do that, I have too much information in my laptop to be a simple process. So my guess is there's some files that remain even after uninstalling calman, and those files have the bug that prevents a correct activation.